list.co.uk/fi lm Reviews | FILM
DRAMA GOLD (15) 121min ●●●●●
DRAMA IT’S ONLY THE END OF THE WORLD (TBC) 97min ●●●●● COMEDY DRAMA RULES DON’T APPLY (12A) 127min ●●●●●
Matthew McConaughey is mesmerising as he ‘uglies up’ for this seemingly tall tale from Stephen Gaghan (Syriana) which melds Wolf of Wall Street-style financial skulduggery with a Herzogian walk on the wild side. Gold falls short of its influences in the bravura stakes but proves pleasantly confounding; odiousness makes way for compassion, greed for loyalty and pluck, while its love affair takes a backseat to something more bromantic. Loosely based on the Bre-X mining scandal, it sees McConaughey’s small-time Reno-based prospector Kenny Wells take a desperate punt on maverick geologist Mike Acosta (Edgar Ramírez), scrabbling together the capital to fund a gold hunt in the Indonesian jungle. The sixth film from Québécois wunderkind Xavier Dolan is designed to put you through the wringer. Based on Jean-Luc Lagarce’s play of the same name, It’s Only the End of the World sees Louis (Gaspard Ulliel) head back home to break the news of his terminal illness to his estranged family. After about ten minutes in the company of his brutish older brother Antoine (Vincent Cassel), younger sister Suzanne (Léa Seydoux), mother (Nathalie Baye) and Antoine’s wife Catherine (Marion Cotillard), it becomes clear why he left. This histrionic brood continually argue and shout and it’s absolutely unbearable. They each get their moment to reconnect with Louis, but can’t seem to say what they really feel.
McConaughey’s game work is transparently a bid Dolan creates a claustrophobic, intentionally
for fresh awards glory. Sadly, the other elements of the story fall by the wayside as the film pins its hope on a bankable showman and his eye-catching transformation, with every goofy grin and display of sweaty flesh lapped up. Yet it never really settles into a satisfying groove, nor confidently projects an identity. Gold has some of the glitter of an Oscar- winner but you don’t have to inspect it too closely to see that it ain’t quite the real deal. (Emma Simmonds) ■ General release from Fri 3 Feb. uncomfortable experience. The overbearing, dream- like ambience gives the impression that Louis is trapped, with everyone forcing their sad goodbyes on him. Yet the presentation of the film’s themes is laboured and Dolan’s typically extravagant symbolism comes across as crude instead of stirring. The director has stated that this is his ‘first film as a man’ but, coming after the masterful Mommy, it feels like a step back. (Katherine McLaughlin) ■ Selected release from Fri 24 Feb.
Warren Beatty was once the Hollywood alpha male. Having done it all it seemed he had retired. He hasn’t acted in a film since 2001 and hasn’t directed one since 1998’s Bulworth. It’s therefore a shock to see him aged 79 playing notorious nutcase Howard Hughes, but he still knows how to make a movie.
Beauty contest winner Marla (Lily Collins) arrives in 1958 Hollywood with her mother (Annette Bening) and a contract at Hughes’ studio. She gets a snazzy villa, a strict set of rules, and a driver, Frank (star on the rise Alden Ehrenreich). Marla and Frank are both religious and ambitious, but their mutual attraction threatens to undermine their virtue and plans. Eventually they cross paths with their elusive employer and their lives are changed forever.
A host of welcome faces figure in the daft, fitfully
disquieting goings-on and the nostalgia for old Hollywood and Hughes’ exploits is handsomely evoked. Perhaps because Scorsese got there with a dramatic epic first, Beatty adopts a curiously kooky take on the mogul’s deterioration, which veers quite oddly in tone. Still, it is engagingly acted, and something of an old-school treat. (Angie Errigo) ■ Screening on Sun 19 & Mon 20 Feb as part of GFF. General release from Fri 10 Mar.
DRAMA CERTAIN WOMEN (12A) 107min ●●●●●
‘It would be so lovely to think that if I were a man people would listen and say ok. It would be so restful,’ sighs lawyer Laura (Laura Dern) after dealing with a difficult client who repeatedly ignores her advice in a workplace injury case. Director Kelly Reichardt adapts three of Maile Meloy’s short stories that each play with the idea that women have long been carving out success for themselves, even if that fact is often ignored or disrespected.
Courage and determination are traits which all the women in this triptych of tales exhibit. Laura straps on a bulletproof vest to act as negotiator after her client takes a security guard hostage. Michelle Williams as Gina is also in negotiations, but with an elderly man for the sandstone in his front yard. She enters his house resolved to get the stone for a good price only to be undermined by her husband Ryan (James Le Gros). Williams has perfected the silent withering glance, and those she directs at Le Gros are wickedly gratifying.
Relative newcomer Lily Gladstone delivers one of the most poignant performances in a film of flawless turns as a lonely rancher who falls for a second lawyer, Elizabeth (Kristen Stewart). After a few dates she takes Elizabeth on a moonlit horse ride along a dusty and remote trail that is electrifyingly sexy and dripping with unquenchable desire. Reichardt has already established herself as one of the best
American directors working today with films like Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy and Meek’s Cutoff, and Certain Women sees her cement that reputation. It’s a tender, meaty and startlingly beautiful portrait of the American Northwest and the trailblazing women that toil fearlessly against its rocky terrain. (Katherine McLaughlin) ■ General release from Fri 3 Mar.
1 Feb–31 Mar 2017 THE LIST 61