The Adjustment Bureau

The Adjustment Bureau holds the distinction of being a Philip K. Dick adaptation that not only mixes science fiction with philosophy, but is also bold enough to flirt with religion. It’s a pity then that the story of two lovers (Matt Damon and Emily Blunt) trying to outrun the titular bureau that mysteriously wants to keep them apart, lacks the sharp script and artistic vision to make it a film as impactful as Total Recall or Minority Report. Still, the romantic notion that a single kiss can alter the destinies of two complete strangers makes TAB the rarest of SF flicks: one that you can enjoy on a first date.  

3/5

Skyfall

Don’t let all the hype fool you – Skyfall is not an easy sell. For all the critical acclaim of Casino Royale and the hefty box office earnings of Quantum of Solace, the Bond fan base has been somewhat divided ever since Daniel Craig inherited 007’s tuxedo. One half embraces the new take on her majesty’s finest agent, an approach that is defined by brutal, furiously-edited fist fights and grounded in reality to the point that Quantum’s villain was an eco-terrorist bent on monopolising water supplies and selling them to puppet governments in Latin America (yawn). The other half instead bemoans the departure of the quirky gadgets along with the improbably-named femme fatales and longs for a villain that wields satellite lasers, has a propensity for delivering evil monologues and is content with residing in an active volcano. If only there was a way to please both parties…

Enter Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes, who has pulled off the nigh-impossible task of striking the perfect balance between realism and escapism in time for Bond’s 50^th anniversary. From the moment you see 007 nonchalantly adjust his cufflinks during a scuffle aboard a moving train, you just know we are back in classic James Bond territory, where a deadpan quip or the seduction of an exotic belle is never far away. But Mendes is respectful enough not to discard completely the work that’s been done before him, as he makes the pragmatism of the previous two films work to his advantage – a major plotline in Skyfall deals with how some of the more serious errors of MI6 are perceived by the media and a tribunal of enquiry.

Another decision that is sure to have some purists up in the arms is that of stripping Bond of his super spy persona and have him reduced to an unkempt, boozing wanderer who can’t shoot straight to save his life. It’s in these segments that Craig and Mendes infuse the decades’ old spy with an amount of doubt and self-loathing never seen before and that quite possibly we’ll never see again in the franchise. Put simply, if Casino Royale was about how James Bond got his mojo, Skyfall is about him losing it… before getting it back in grand, triumphant style, of course.

Just when all the dark introspection risks outstaying its welcome, Mendes puts the film firmly back on track and we finally get to see Craig as James Bond, rather than as a versatile actor. We all know by now that Danny boy convinces as a cold-hearted hit-man, but we’ve yet to see him revel in wry putdowns and the shameless womanising, which he gets to do both in spades here. It also helps that he is up against a brilliant villain in the form of Silva, a toad-faced Javier Bardem with bleached hair who amuses and unsettles in equal measure. And for a franchise that is commonly known for its use of glamorous locations around the globe, there is something immensely refreshing about staging the film’s most gripping action sequence in the London Underground.

So are there any let-downs? Well, the third act’s parochial setting definitely sets the right mood for a chilly climax, although it does play out like an odd blend of Straw Dogs and Home Alone. Meanwhile, Albert Finney’s cuddly gamekeeper is the kind of impromptu sidekick you’d expect from the Roger Moore era Bond (although he does get to deliver literally a killer line).

Yet these inconsistencies matter little as the explosive and surprisingly gut-wrenching climax is over, and the closing scene divides audiences once again. One half will see it as a melancholic ending, the other will no doubt see it as an exciting new beginning. But there is one thing everyone is sure to agree on: nobody does it better than 007.

5/5       

On the Road

Beat writing may have given plenty of nonconformist writers a voice back in the ‘50s but, judging from On the Road the movie, one thing is sure: it was never made for the big-screen. Walter Salles should be lauded for his attempt to adapt Jack Kerouac’s freewheeling prose, but he inevitably ends up with a road movie void of plot and, ironically, direction. It is beautifully shot and Garrett Hedlund turns in a charismatic performance as Dean Moriarty, although Sam Riley’s hokey accent and Kristen Stewart’s naked but empty performance manage to further tarnish the overall quality of the picture.

2/5   

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Drugs, homophobia, social dysfunction, emotional rejection… it feels like most of the classic teen quandaries have been ticked in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Yet like its introverted protagonist, Steven Chbosky’s cinematic debut lacks the confidence to mingle with the harder-hitting high school dramas (Elephant, The Virgin Suicides, We Need to Talk About Kevin) and instead plays it safe by operating on the sidelines. Nevertheless, this sweet little film manages to pull off a few feats of its own, like a very touching first kiss and, in a moment of beautifully-scored nostalgia, a scene that reminds us how thrilling it was in a pre-Shazam world to track down that song we once heard on the radio.

3/5  

Looper

“I’m not going to talk to you about time travel,” says Bruce Willis to his younger self played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt during one of Looper’s many thought-provoking scenes. “If I did, we’d be sitting here all day making diagrams out of straws”. It’s a throwaway line that suggests director Rian Johnson is all too aware that, while Doc Brown had the luxury of explaining time paradoxes via a chalk board in Back to the Future Part II, Looper should not over lecture its audience and instead stick to its own, impressively crafted guns.

And guess what? It’s all the better because of it. What we have here is a surprisingly accessible SF flick that trusts the viewer is familiar with the general conventions of time travel (i.e. harming yourself in the present will inevitably harm your future self but not vice versa), but also offers a fresh spin on this often rehashed but rarely revisited genre (the most intriguing notion being some future events might just be set in stone but there are plenty of possible routes to get there). It’s the kind of film that puts Men in Black III’s half-arsed take on time travel to shame.

The set-up for Looper is a corker, for starters (pardon the rhymes). The year is 2044 and Joe (Gordon-Levitt) is a low-life hit man with the most unusual of tasks: he executes victims that are zapped back in time by the mob thirty years in the future. Despite the convoluted nature of the assignment, it’s a fairly straightforward job – show up at a specific time and place, dispose of body after execution, collect fee. Except when Joe is unexpectedly confronted with his future self (Willis), things get a little a tricky…

It’s hard going into further detail without spoiling the plot, so it’s probably best to focus on the rest of Looper’s merits. First and foremost, props should go to Johnson for showing the Hollywood big wigs that all you need to put together an impressive SF movie is $30 million, a farm, maybe a few location shots (in this case, Shanghai) and a cast low in profile but high on talent. This may be yet another future dominated by towering skylines, flying vehicles and transparent touch screen phones but the high-tech spectacle undeniably takes a back seat to the characters and especially JGL, whose uncanny resemblance to Bruce Willis is more down to the mannerisms and that cocky John McClane half grin, rather than the dodgy make-up and prosthetics.

But more importantly, Looper pulls off the incredibly tricky feat of balancing bursts of humour – courtesy of Jeff Daniels’ scene stealing pep talk and a diner squabble between the two Joes – with some seriously dark and unsettling touches. One early scene showcases how torture and time travel go horribly hand in hand, while the nature of old Joe’s plans in the present are too spoilerific to be discussed here but will no doubt spark that age-old debate that is so often held in philosophy lectures (you know, the one about baby Hitler).

The fact that the film takes the time to ponder upon such hefty themes does mean there is a significant lack of action during Looper’s third act, but rest assured, it’s well worth the break. Just sit back, take it all in and debate afterwards. Oh, and learn Mandarin.

5/5     

The Imposter

Sometimes life truly is stranger than fiction. In 1994, thirteen year old Nicholas Barclay went missing from his hometown after a game of basketball with his friends. Despite the best efforts of his family to locate him, the boy was never found. Fast forward to 1997 and the Barclays receive a phone call from the US Embassy in Spain. The local authorities seem to have found an orphaned teenager holed up in a phone box and he claims to be Nicholas.

Except it is not Nicholas Barclay, but a conniving impersonator named Frederic Bourdin, a thickly-accented Frenchman who is all too happy to narrate straight to the camera how he tricked a family into believing he was their long lost son from San Antonio, Texas.

Bart Layton’s documentary is a film that catches you entirely off guard. One could read the synopsis above and would be entirely justified to believe the reviewer in question has spoiled the ending with the kind of big reveal any other film would save for the third act. And yet within minutes of the film’s dark opening, you will soon realize that, like its protagonist, there is so much more to The Imposter.

Take Bourdin, for example: here is a man who should be so easy to hold in contempt, despise even, yet somehow comes off as a compelling raconteur, not to mention an unsettlingly charming one too. He is far from self-loathing but he doesn’t sugarcoat his story either, which as a result comes off, bizarrely, as honest and heartfelt.

The reconstructed footage will initially put off those who like their documentaries authentic and void of melodrama, but their inclusion is strategic. By having actors reenact the scenarios that were impossible to capture on camera, the real life footage packs a far more powerful punch, whether they are excerpts from Fox News or the tender clips taken by the real Nicholas Barclay before his disappearance.

The Imposter is also clearly not afraid of pushing buttons. Layton’s decision to play interviews with the lackluster Barclay clan against Bourdin’s more colourful account dares viewers to be put in the unlikely position of sympathizing more with the conman than the conned, a move which Michael Moore would never dream of pulling off in one of his features.

And then there’s the twist, the one that creeps up on you in the final act, after an hour of conflicting theories and half-spoken truths and that will have you looking up more info online once the credits start rolling. To reveal more would mean missing out on viewing and subsequently analyzing a brilliant film that sustains there is never one truth and that ultimately, some stories are too crazy even for Hollywood.   

5/5

Dredd

Imagine if Danny Boyle and Takashi Miike decided to direct a 3D action film together, the former applying a psychedelic touch to drug-induced hallucinations that play out in slow motion, while the latter depicts graphic acts of violence that range from wince-inducing to outright hilarious. That is probably the best way to sum up Dredd, Alex Garland’s take on the 2000 AD comic book character that goes to great lengths to distance itself from Danny Cannon’s ludicrous 1995 adaptation.

Judge Dredd is not an easy character to bring to the big screen. First of all you have the look: a scowling lawman decked in heavily padded riot gear who never removes his helmet, thus making it difficult for casual viewers to connect with a faceless protagonist. Secondly – and there is no way around this – Dredd is essentially a neo-noir fascist. He exists in a dystopian world where crime levels are so dire, the government keeps a lid on things by deploying ruthless agents in the field that are judge, jury and executioner all at once. If you happened to be involved in last year’s student demonstrations, you may find there is a lot to hate about such a totalitarian figure.

So how do you get around this dodgy issue? Well, for starters director Pete Travis and the studios have kept things relatively cheap. Marvel and DC are capable of bankrolling $200 million per movie, so a budget of just $45 million means the risk of Dredd not making a profit has been significantly reduced. The decision to have a CG-enhanced Johannesburg double for the sprawling Mega City One also pays off, as an LA or New York skyline would have been too overfamiliar in a fictional world. And while the decision to saddle Dredd with a sidekick may initially trigger painful memories of Rob Schneider in Cannon’s film, Olivia Thirlby proves to be the Judge’s perfect counterpoint as idealistic psychic Anderson.

The set-up, which sees Dredd and Anderson shoot their way to the top of scum-infested skyscraper in order to sentence the vile gang leader known as Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), is terrific in its simplicity, but makes for a one-note plot and one that unfortunately resembles that of another action film released this year, Gareth Evans’ The Raid. The fact that Evans’ film was a hit with critics definitely harms Dredd in the originality stakes, but luckily it has two saving graces.

The first is Karl Urban. Usually playing second fiddle to bigger name action stars in the likes of Doom and The Chronicles of Riddick, here he fills the titular character’s shoes majestically, as he pulls off a truly menacing and occasionally dry witted performance without ever showing his full face (surely he must’ve been swapping tips with Tom Hardy?). Dredd may be a neo noir fascist, but in Urban’s hands he’s a damn cool one.

The final saving grace is the highly graphic violence. All too often these days you get studios trying to tame the content of adult comic books for younger audiences, so the fact that Travis and Garland have gone for an unrestrained approach when it comes to shoot outs and brutal one on ones – all delivered to pounding industrial music – is something to be admired.

It may have its flaws, but as a re-introduction to the UK’s most successful and no doubt ballsiest comic book character, Dredd is a blood-splattered hit.

3/5