list.co.uk/fi lm Reviews | FILM
MUSICAL CHI-RAQ (15) 127min ●●●●●
BIOPIC – DRAMA THE BIRTH OF A NATION (15) 120min ●●●●● FANTASY A MONSTER CALLS (12A) 108min ●●●●●
Spike Lee’s latest joint is a bold and passionate hip- hop musical and update of Greek play Lysistrata set in the Windy City. Teyonah Parris (Dear White People) lights up the screen as Lysistrata, a woman who formulates a plan to end gang wars by persuading her female cohorts to withhold sex from their boyfriends and husbands. Samuel L Jackson brings the noise, parading around in sharp suits as one-man chorus and narrator Dolmedes, and Angela Bassett injects real pathos as Miss Helen, a woman at her wits’ end who is sick to death of all the bloodshed.
Lee’s frustration at wilful ignorance and political corruption explodes through his characters. Swathes of purple light and exquisite synchronised dancing dazzle in a powerful concert scene that begins joyfully and ends in a shooting. That dark, pulsing energy recurs throughout the film but it also sways through many different emotions, such as anger and overwhelming sadness. These tonal shifts are not necessarily eased into with enough grace, yet Lee always manages to bring it back with vibrant imagery and slick rhymes that are both poetic and rousing. Packed full of heady ideas, this is a vigorous and provocative piece of work. (Katherine McLaughlin) ■ General release from Fri 2 Dec.
Smartly repurposing the title of DW Griffith’s epic, which featured a heroic depiction of the Ku Klux Klan, this biopic of Nat Turner – written, directed by and starring Nate Parker – gives us true heroism, as Turner inspires a slave rebellion.
Nat grows up to be a preacher and is loaned out by his master (Armie Hammer) to landowners who make him recite passages from the Bible encouraging slaves to submit. Haunted by what he witnesses, Nat plots a daring uprising.
When The Birth of a Nation premiered at Sundance it provoked a bidding war and entered the Oscars conversation. Since then, its creator has become mired in controversy but his film deserves to be seen. It’s appropriately angry, with a strong spiritual dimension and bags of visual drama. Comparisons with 12 Years a Slave are inevitable, yet it lacks that film’s finesse and universally powerful performances. Nevertheless, this is dynamic filmmaking whose story finds modern resonance in the Black Lives Matter movement.
As Nat wages a war we know to be unwinnable, the film celebrates his actions, which sadly result in only the briefest taste of freedom. (Emma Simmonds) ■ General release from Fri 9 Dec.
Childhood can be traumatic enough without the added nightmares suffered by 12-year-old Conor O’Malley in the screen version of the Patrick Ness gothic fable. His mother (Felicity Jones) is battling cancer, his father (Toby Kebbell) has a new life that seems unlikely to involve Conor, he is bullied at school and his no-nonsense grandma (Sigourney Weaver) hardly oozes sympathy and support. Spanish director JA Bayona (The Orphanage)
overdoes the visual fireworks, animated sequences and thunderous sound design of a film that works best when quietly addressing the torments faced by Conor, played by dynamic Scots youngster Lewis MacDougall. His fears are so vivid he brings to life a giant, tree-shaped monster with the commanding presence and booming voice of Liam Neeson.
This is a coming-of-age tearjerker wrapped inside a web of fantasy and magic. There are echoes of Pete’s Dragon and The BFG in the notion of a child and his unusual friend, but the story is slender. In the end, it is the performances that matter most, with Jones on poignant form as the dying mother and MacDougall impressing as an adolescent embarking on the long, tough journey towards adulthood. (Allan Hunter) ■ General release from Fri 6 Jan.
DRAMA MANCHESTER BY THE SEA (TBC) 135min ●●●●●
In pleasing contrast to his superstar, superhero brother Ben, Casey Affleck has cultivated a discreetly impressive career, often assuming the guise of the quiet man. Manchester by the Sea sees him do just that as he teams up with Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count on Me, Margaret), a writer-director who suits Affleck Junior to a T with his blend of high drama, quirky characterisations and incidental detail. The humdrum gets an infusion of grandeur as we’re introduced
to two contrasting incarnations of Lee Chandler (Affleck), separated by about a decade and an earth-shattering event. There’s the carefree small-town character whose life is chaotic but enviably full, and the lonely handyman working in Boston. When his brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) passes away, Lee is tasked with the guardianship of Joe’s teenage son Patrick (Lucas Hedges), and returns home to make the necessary arrangements.
This unshowy but relentlessly riveting film is anchored by Affleck’s soulful, heartbreaking turn as a man hollowed-out by tragedy. The revelation, when it comes at the midway point, rips through proceedings like a tornado, saturating all that follows with sadness. But, after rocking us to the core, Manchester by the Sea re-finds its rhythm in the bickering and borderline farce of Lee’s tumultuous relationship with his newly acquired charge, who also happens to be an unlikely lothario, placing benign humour and catastrophic loss side by side in a way that’s masterfully managed and entirely consistent with life.
It is a film that emphatically deserves to be in the mix come awards time, from a director who knows that you don’t need fast-paced action, or expensive tricks to conjure truly spectacular cinema. (Emma Simmonds) ■ General release from Fri 13 Jan.
3 Nov 2016–31 Jan 2017 THE LIST 91