list.co.uk/fi lm Reviews | FILM
ROMANTIC COMEDY THE BIG SICK (TBC) 119min ●●●●●
That this unconventional, appealingly awkward romantic comedy is based on a true story makes perfect sense. Life is, after all, stranger and more messy than fiction. Leading man Kumail Nanjiani co-wrote the script with his wife Emily V Gordon and it puts their dramatic courtship centre-stage. Nanjiani plays Kumail, an aspiring stand-up comedian and
Uber driver who falls for Zoe Kazan’s wannabe therapist Emily. Yet he’s obliged to marry a Muslim and when the issue drives a wedge between them, the couple separate. Then Emily is struck down by a mystery illness and as she hovers scarily close to death, Kumail joins her parents (Holly Hunter and Ray Romano) at her bedside. It’s the third feature from Michael ‘Wet Hot American Summer’ Showalter and he’s assembled quite the cast. The culture-clash comedy plays out with charming, sometimes toe-curling honesty and an acknowledgement of how complicated life can get when expectations weigh heavy and tradition unceremoniously intervenes. If it runs a tad long, it feels like a film in rude health – provocative, unpredictable and large on laughs. The Big Sick is the perfect cure for anyone who comes over all queasy at the mere mention of a rom-com. (Emma Simmonds) ■ General release from Fri 28 Jul.
HORROR HOUNDS OF LOVE (18) 108min ●●●●●
Once you’ve seen Ben Young’s impressive debut, it’s difficult to forget. Set in the sweltering heat of a residential street in Perth, Australia, over Christmas 1987, it’s mostly confined to the claustrophobic quarters of a serial killer couple who target young women and is inspired by the Moorhouse murders. The opening sequence assumes a male sexual predator’s gaze but the majority of this superbly performed film delves into the psychology of his female co-conspirator. It takes you into the ordeal of 17-year-old captive Vicki (Ashleigh Cummings) who spots the chinks in the relationship of Evelyn and John White (Emma Booth and Stephen Curry). Young uses the sound of Vicki’s screams and images of bloody rags to paint a harrowing picture akin to Justin Kurzel’s Snowtown. The title nods to the Kate Bush track and album and,
although none of Bush’s songs are used, the film blends the feelings of terror and insatiable desire from the record to create a palpable intensity. All the women are looking to break free from something and Young’s fascination with the nature of toxic and co-dependent relationships works on many levels, while he suggests that this moment in time marked a huge loss of innocence. (Katherine McLaughlin) ■ Selected release from Fri 7 Jul.
1 Jun–31 Aug 2017 THE LIST 79
MELODRAMA THE BEGUILED (TBC) 94min ●●●●●
You have to wonder what possessed Sofia Coppola to remake The Beguiled. Thomas P Cullinan’s novel is a slice of Southern Gothic famously filmed in 1971 by director Don Siegel with Clint Eastwood as the wounded Union soldier who arrives at a ladies’ seminary like a hungry fox at the gates of a tasty chicken coop. There was certainly room for a subtle, more feminist perspective on the material but Coppola offers a meticulously crafted, high-camp melodrama that seems happy to invite your derision.
Colin Farrell is Corporal John McBurney, a wounded deserter discovered in the woods near a school for girls in 1864. Headmistress Martha Farnsworth (Nicole Kidman) is persuaded to show him Christian kindness. However, he is barely over the door before the seven females are batting their eyelashes and baking him apple pie. Who wants to conjugate French verbs and catch up on sewing when there is a man about the house? The gentlemanly McBurney is not about to disappoint any of them: befriending, seducing and disarming as required. His presence becomes a startling provocation, unleashing jealousies and unseemly desires. He cannot continue to be tolerated.
The Beguiled is an elegant looking production but it moves with ridiculous haste through the gears, from atmospheric scene-setting to overwrought psychodrama, complete with crashing chandeliers and a tumble down a sweeping staircase. Kirsten Dunst earns the most sympathy as the love-starved Edwina, leaving an imperious Kidman to handle the flamboyant dialogue (‘Edwina, get me the anatomy book!’) Enjoyable in places, it nevertheless feels rushed and as flustered as some of the women
caught in McBurney’s gaze. That can’t have been Coppola’s intention. (Allan Hunter) ■ General release from Fri 14 Jul.
DOCUMENTARY DAVID LYNCH: THE ART LIFE (15) 88min ●●●●● One cannot complain that this documentary on David Lynch is not what it says on the tin. Lynch sits in his studio in the Hollywood Hills and intently paints canvases, while his voiceover answers questions about his life and his art. But not all of them. Lynch devotees will be interested in the septuagenarian filmmaker’s formative years, childhood, influences and reflections on his oeuvre. In keeping with the character of his work, this is by turns opaque, surreal and not entirely linear. Lynch, who still has his distinctive shock of hair, now white, and still looks
– as Mel Brooks famously put it – ‘like Jimmy Stewart from Mars’, is eccentric company. And it is fascinating to see his family photos and hear his memories. But there are no specific references to his feature films beyond Eraserhead; this is almost entirely about Lynch’s journey as a painter. That is all very well, and Jon Nguyen’s film (co-directed by Rick Barnes and Olivia Neergaard-
Holm) is not without its insights, but Lynch is evasive – he starts an anecdote and then stops. This gets quite exasperating, and it ends abruptly, if with a wistful sweetness. Although intriguing, it is perhaps one for Lynch completists only. (Angie Errigo) ■ Selected release from Fri 14 Jul.