Real-life story makes
THE INVISIBLE MAN (MA15+)
Director: Leigh Whannell Starring: Elisabeth Moss, Harriet Dyer, Aldis Hodge Running time 115 minutes Verdict: Something’s missing in this B-horror
YOU’D think Elisabeth Moss would have had her fill of pitiless patriarchal oppression after three seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Yet here she is again, being brutalised by faceless aggressors, digging deep into her DNA to, well if not thrive, then at least adapt and survive.
This contemporary adaptation of H.G. Wells’ 1897 sci-fi novel tackles domestic violence from the perspective of a B-horror movie.
Australian director Leigh Whannell’s version of The Invisible Man opens with an arresting sequence in which a terrified Cecilia Cass (Elisabeth Moss) flees an abusive relationship in the dead of night – she has temporarily immobilised her violent, controlling partner, the brilliant scientist Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), with sleeping pills.
Loosely inspired by James Whale’s 1933 classic, the film gets caught in an uneasy no man’s land somewhere between its monster origins and classy psychological thrillers such as Gaslight.
Moss’s determined performance and Whannell’s proficiency with classic horror tropes eventually get the job done.
CINCINNATI lawyer Robert Billot (Mark Ruffalo) doesn’t really get his day in court in this disturbing real-life drama about a giant chemical company’s attempts to cover up its decades-long contamination of a town’s water supply.
Dark Waters film.
In a world traditionally dominated by firebrands (Julia Roberts’ Erin Brokovich) and grandstanders (Fahrenheit 11/9’s Michael Moore), doggedness is not that kind of is this superpower.
After 20 years of unrelenting graft, Billot does, finally, achieve a significant victory against DuPont, which knowingly subjected its employees and their surrounding environment to Teflon’s toxic by-products.
But rather than reassure its audience with a classic, David-and-Goliath story in which the little guy triumphs against overwhelming odds, Dark Waters methodically builds a nondescript hero’s case of widespread systemic corruption in which the plaintiffs are betrayed even by the institutions that were designed to protect them.
One leaves the cinema with the sobering thought that if that’s what it takes to bring a corporate giant to justice, it’s no wonder so few are held to account.
Even harder to compute is how so many people could condone such callous behaviour, which included lacing employees’ cigarettes with chemicals
‘‘...real-life players in the case lend a further note authenticity to the film.’’
Based on a 2016 New York Times article, “The Lawyer Who Became
to test toxicity levels, and reintroducing women to the production line after confirming the Teflon by-products caused birth defects.
DuPont’s Worst Nightmare”, Todd Haynes’ film is almost conscientiously stark.
Its grey colour palette stands in marked contrast to previous, coloursaturated films by the director such as Carol and Far From Heaven.
Ruffalo plays Billot as a hunchshouldered worker bee in an ill-fitting suit and an unflattering bouffant hairdo.
After a visit from one of his grandma’s West Virginia neighbours
– a farmer who is gruff to the point of surliness – the hardworking corporate lawyer feels compelled to investigate the allegations further.
Sifting his way through a mountain of documents, Billot discovers crimes of such magnitude, he switches sides.
Cameos from Bilott, his wife Sarah (played in the film by Anne Hathaway), and other real-life players in the case lend a further note authenticity to the film.