FILM | Reviews
WESTERN SWEET COUNTRY (15) 113min ●●●●●
The Australian outback is the ideal setting for a western, as anyone who saw John Hillcoat’s The Proposition can attest. Warwick Thornton (Samson & Delilah) subverts genre tropes to create a mesmerising, hallucinatory meditation on race, class and political history. Set in 1929, we are introduced to Sam (Hamilton Morris), an Aboriginal stockman lent by his god-fearing, kindly boss Fred (Sam Neill) to his neighbour Harry (Ewen Leslie) to complete some menial work. Harry has a hideous violent streak; he rapes Sam’s wife Lizzie (Natassia Gorey Furber) and later comes after Sam, leading the couple to l ee into the outback. Drawing naturalistic performances from the indigenous,
non-professional cast members, Thornton is just as adept at capturing the landscape of the Northern Territory. With no score to speak of, this refuses to ape the traditional lovers-on-the-run scenario. Rather, Sweet Country is understated and poetic, though no less compelling. The ironic title i rmly pointing the way, Thornton has crafted a fascinating look at the Aboriginal Australian experience, one that keeps surprising you until the i nal, galling shot. (James Mottram) ■ Selected release from Fri 9 Mar. Screening at Glasgow Film Festival on Mon 26 & Tue 27 Feb.
SPORTS DRAMA JOURNEYMAN (TBC) 92min ●●●●●
Boxing’s macho posturing is stripped away in a tender road- to-recovery drama. It’s the second feature from writer-director Paddy Considine, following the BAFTA-winning Tyrannosaur. As the title suggests, Matty (Considine himself) isn’t exactly an all- timer, his worthiness of the world middleweight belt questioned at the outset. Instead our protagonist is focused on his family: wife Emma (Jodie Whittaker) and new baby Mia. When he sustains a head injury, those formerly in his corner drift away. Considine ensures Matty’s crisis is credible, although his age makes him an unlikely champion. Whittaker is such an affecting actress and her character’s predicament is so heartrending that it’s desperately disappointing that she isn’t given the opportunity to articulate her own challenges. Nonetheless, the i lm is notable for its portrait of tough men overcoming their cowardice and learning to provide emotional support. There’s delicacy in the performances and in cinematographer Laurie Rose’s visuals, occasionally undermined by the less subtle script. The ending is arrived at rather suddenly but, buoyed by an unshakeable faith in the knockout power of love, Journeyman is as earnest as they come. (Emma Simmonds) ■ General release from Fri 30 Mar. Screening at Glasgow Film Festival on Tue 27 Feb.
THRILLER YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (TBC) 85min ●●●●●
Jonny Greenwood’s threatening electronic score breathlessly pursues a troubled i gure in Scottish writer-director Lynne Ramsay’s tender and savage reworking of the revenge thriller, based on the novella by Jonathan Ames. Ramsay’s i rst feature since 2011’s We Need to Talk About Kevin is a doozy, a double Cannes prize-winner focusing on a world- weary antihero whose shattered humanity is clinging on for dear life.
Joaquin Phoenix’s hulking physique looms large in the hotel and motel corridors he roams
as he completes his violent missions. He plays Joe, a gun for hire with a reputation for being particularly brutal, his weapon of choice: a hammer. Though Joe commits horrii c carnage in his quest to retrieve young Nina (Ekaterina Samsonov) from a sex trafi cking ring, it is the ferocious beast of trauma, stalking him every minute of the day, that proves the most terrifying aspect of this neo-noir. Joe’s abusive childhood and military service has left him severely scarred. He swallows
his pain via prescription pills and asphyxiation rituals and cares deeply for his elderly mother (a wonderful Judith Roberts) who we i rst meet watching Hitchcock’s Psycho, with the pair sharing a laugh about the famous stabbing scene. However, this isn’t a i lm about killing, its focus is i rmly on Joe’s mental state and how he has come to this point. Glimpses of his past wallop the viewer with insights into his detached and anguished state of being. Ramsay has pulled off the extraordinary, crafting a muscular, tightly wound masterpiece
that features an intensely riveting performance from Phoenix. It’s a crushingly sad, daringly outré lament for lives gripped and held down by the wretchedness of violence. (Katherine McLaughlin) ■ General release from Fri 9 Mar. Screening at Glasgow Film Festival on Fri 23 & Sat 24 Feb.
DRAMA A FANTASTIC WOMAN (15) 104min ●●●●●
Early on in Chilean director Sebastián Lelio’s compassionate study of a trans woman in mourning, a man rudely enquires if Marina (Daniela Vega) has had ‘the operation’. Throughout the i lm, Marina is dehumanised by people who make assumptions about her and is continually made to feel like trash by the family of her older lover Orlando (Francisco Reyes), who dies suddenly from an aneurysm.
Emotions run high in the days following Orlando’s death, with his son, ex-wife and the police inl icting a brutal character assassination on Marina. Lelio (Gloria)
whisks the viewer through her grief with gorgeous and haunting imagery that recalls the work of Pedro Almodóvar and Xavier Dolan. Vega’s performance is nuanced and commanding, the musical numbers that bookend the i lm are elegantly shot in opulent locations, while the focus is on the individual experience, showing how grieving is a personal process. With her coni dence knocked, Lelio attempts to put the viewer in Marina’s bewildered headspace as she questions herself and the way people see her. Distorted rel ections appear throughout, exposing insecurities, but Marina remains strong and determined, despite the hurdles placed in her way. (Katherine McLaughlin) ■ Selected release from Fri 2 Mar. Screening at Glasgow Film Festival on Sun 25 & Mon 26 Feb. 62 THE LIST 1 Feb–31 Mar 2018