list.co.uk/fi lm Reviews | FILM
COMEDY INGRID GOES WEST (15) 98min ●●●●● Social media show-offs are lampooned mercilessly in this wildly funny film from debut writer-director Matt Spicer that brings us into the crazed orbit of a cyberstalker. Played by Aubrey Plaza, whose commitment to comedy knows no bounds, we first meet Ingrid when she turns up at her online girl-crush’s wedding, mace in hand. The ensuing institutionalisation barely scratches the surface and she quickly moves on to her next obsession: Elizabeth Olsen’s Taylor Sloane. Moving to California to be near her, Ingrid remakes herself in Taylor’s carefully crafted image.
BIOPIC PROFESSOR MARSTON AND THE WONDER WOMEN (15) 108min ●●●●● Combining a modern thematic sensibility with old- fashioned filmmaking charm, writer-director Angela Robinson has crafted a film as empowering as it is entertaining. In the 1920s, Harvard professor William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans) embarks on a research project with wife Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall), centred on their fascination with the psychological effects of dominance and submission. Volunteer student Olive (Bella Heathcote) stirs up uncontrollable passions in them both, and the trio’s sexual and emotional experimentations result in Marston’s eventual creation of Wonder Woman.
O’Shea Jackson Jr is endearing as Ingrid’s landlord, The film is fuelled by three excellent performances,
and Wyatt Russell plays Taylor’s husband, who is exhausted by her ludicrous pretence of perfection. The film never lets us forget that its protagonist is a vulnerable young woman seeking a connection. Moreover, the fantasy world Ingrid lives in is of Taylor’s creation and yet just one of them is labelled insane. Attempts to shade in backstories are cursory, but so spot on is the satire that it’s hard to imagine this being done better. Although social media fanatics are the film’s primary target, more than might care to admit it will be caught by its swipes. (Emma Simmonds) ■ General release from Fri 17 Nov. with Hall being the standout as Elizabeth, whose feminist ideals form the backbone of Marston’s whip-cracking heroine. Robinson deftly handles the story’s inherent kink, careful never to stray into overt eroticism. Their unconventional relationship is effectively contrasted with the buttoned-up conservatism of the day, highlighting a growing cultural tension that proved a fertile breeding ground for post-war women’s lib efforts and the movement’s most famous poster child: Wonder Woman herself. (Nikki Baughan) ■ General release from Fri 10 Nov.
SATIRE SUBURBICON (15) 104min ●●●●●
The best laid plans go hysterically awry in Suburbicon, a gleeful skewering of America’s dark heart from director George Clooney. Co-writing with Grant Heslov and the Coens, Clooney serves up a jarring mixture of pitch-black comedy and startling social commentary that never quite gels.
Suburbicon is a dream community of white picket fences, friendly neighbours and modern amenities. Built in the post-war boom years, it is now starting to crack. It is 1959 and the first black family have dared to claim their share of paradise; their presence is met by waves of hatred. When businessman Gardner Lodge (Matt Damon) and his family are attacked, his wife is killed but there is a sense that something else is going on. After his late wife’s sister (Julianne Moore) joins the household, suspicions are confirmed.
Like a Mad magazine parody of suburbia’s guilty little secrets, Suburbicon remains jaunty even as violence takes hold. Clooney casts Damon and Moore against the grain of their sympathetic screen images and brings out the best from a rogues’ gallery of a cast. The scene-stealer is a terrific Noah Jupe as Lodge’s young son; one of the few decent souls in an America that is rotten to the core. (Allan Hunter) ■ General release from Fri 24 Nov.
PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER (15) 121min ●●●●●
The first film that springs to mind when watching this deeply disturbing psychological horror from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, Dogtooth) is Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers. In the opening scene, a beating heart lays exposed on the operating table – a gruesome reminder of the fragility of life. Colin Farrell plays Steven, a cardiac surgeon forced to deal with matters of the heart in a cold and scientific manner on a daily basis, but when his family are threatened with an inexplicable paralysis sickness, he begins to crack under the pressure.
There are shades of Haneke’s Funny Games and Kubrick’s The Shining in this disquieting disintegration of a wealthy family man. Creepy teenage stalker Martin (Barry Keoghan – devilishly good) becomes obsessed with the surgeon, his ophthalmologist wife Anna (an icy Nicole Kidman) and their two children Kim (Raffey Cassidy) and Bob (Sunny Suljic), with his intimidating presence adding to the sinister and oppressive ambience. The Lanthimos trademarks, such as deadpan dialogue and dark humour, conspire to create an odd, heightened reality, where flashes of cruelty sit beside weird, haunting images and hilarious bursts of confession.
At first it is not clear what kind of relationship exists between Martin and Steven. Is it something sexual, or merely a well- meaning mentorship? To reveal that would be to give the game away, as much of the film is spent laying down juicy intrigue and suspense. As Anna and Steven contemplate the unthinkable in their discussions on human life, Lanthimos and his regular co-writer Efthymis Filippou deal with the themes of control, sacrifice, judgement and revenge with chilling precision and operatic despair. (Katherine McLaughlin) ■ General release from Fri 3 Nov.
1 Nov 2017–31 Jan 2018 THE LIST 85