Phoenix rises from a gritty masterpiece
YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (Cert 15; 90mins)
IT HAS been more than six years since Lynne Ramsay’s last film but You Were Never Really Here is well worth the wait. It unfolds like a feverish hallucination. It is intense, unsettling and completely gripping. Little is spelt out but the sense of dread and menace is palpable throughout.
You Were Never Really Here is based on Jonathan Ames’ novella. The central character Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) is a gun for hire and when a situation requires resolution without involving the authorities, Joe is the man you call. His weapon of choice is a hammer and he wields it with righteous anger.
A combination of private eye Philip Marlowe and Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, Joe earns a living rescuing young girls kidnapped into the sex trade.
Joe’s latest case is to find Nina Votto (Ekaterina Samsonov), the missing daughter of a New York senator. Like Jack Nicholson’s JJ Gittes in Chinatown, the more Joe pursues the case, the more he realises he is putting his life on the line to fight a powerful conspiracy.
Phoenix’s hulking, scarred boxer’s frame and blank, haunted stares convey a man who has seen too many horrors and lived too long. He is constantly exploring new ways to commit suicide but what keeps him tethered to life is an affectionate relationship with his elderly mother (Judith Roberts). They make joking references to the mother/son dynamic in Psycho but she seems to be his sole reason for living one more day.
The film is beautifully shot on the streets of New York by Thomas Townend and Jonny Greenwood’s tremendous electronic score perfectly matches the emotional turmoil of the central character.
Joaquin Phoenix, beefy and bearded, makes Joe a ghost haunting the shadows of the world. He is permanently on the edge and there is a constant sense of rage and despair beneath the surface of his tightly-coiled performance.
The fact that this lost soul is a rescuer who winds up being rescued provides a glimmer of light at the end of a very dark tunnel.
WONDER WHEEL (Cert 12A; 101mins)
WONDER Wheel may be one of Woody Allen’s most maudlin films. It is full of bitter irony and monstrous acts, pitched somewhere between Greek tragedy and the works of Tennessee Williams.
Set in Coney Island in the 1950s it stars Kate Winslet as Ginny. Once upon a time Ginny was an actress but now she works as a waitress and is married to loutish carousel operator Humpty (Jim Belushi).
Movies provide her escapism and an affair with lifeguard and aspiring playwright Mickey (Justin Timberlake) is the one bright colour in her otherwise drab life.
Then Humpty’s daughter Carolina (Juno Temple) arrives, on the run from her gangland husband. When Ginny introduces Carolina to Mickey, it is a mistake that will have terrible consequences.
Wonder Wheel looks stunning as cinematographer Vittorio Storaro applies a golden sheen to the film, giving it the feel of a 1950s melodrama with its vivid hues and expressive use of shadows and light.
Unfortunately the content feels strained and the dialogue tends towards the florid leaving us with mere echoes of better Woody Allen films such as The Purple Rose Of Cairo or Crimes And Misdemeanours.
SWEET COUNTRY (Cert 15; 113mins)
“WHAT chance has this country got?” is the last line of dialogue in Sweet Country, a powerful, deeply moving western set in Australia’s Northern Territory in 1929. It is a time of brutal racism and deep-rooted injustice.
Aboriginal stockman Sam (Hamilton Morris) works the land for kindly Christian preacher Fred Smith (Sam Neill). When Fred agrees to lend Sam to vicious war veteran Harry Morris (Ewen Leslie) it sets the stage for a confrontation that can only end in tragedy.
Stark and sun-bleached, Sweet Country makes the most of its locations to tell a story that strikes at the heart of Australia’s colonial past.
WALK LIKE A PANTHER (Cert 12A; 108 mins)
IF YOU love Mrs Brown’s Boys, you might enjoy Walk Like A Panther.
The film opens in 1980, the glory days of British wrestling when burly, Lycra-clad men were a highlight of Saturday teatime television viewing.
We quickly fast-forward to the present day when the struggle to save a village pub from closure is the cue for a reunion of wrestling stars from the past. The flesh is willing but the joints are weak as the likes of Bulldog (Dave Johns), Lesley Beck (Christopher Fairbank) and Bulldog’s son Mark (Stephen Graham) head into the ring. The cast is certainly game but every single element of the story is predictable.
THE DIVINE ORDER (Cert 12A; 96mins)
THE Divine Order might be set in Switzerland in the 1970s but it could hardly feel more timely. Petra Volpe’s entertaining crowd-pleaser follows the story of Nora (Marie Leuenberger), a woman in a small Swiss village who cooks, cleans and cares for two children, a husband and a grumpy old father-in-law.
The law states she can only seek employment with the permission of her husband so it feels like the Middle Ages and yet this is 1971 and the story is based on fact.
A national referendum on whether women should be given the vote is the catalyst for Nora to turn from submissive housewife to committed activist.
Carrying echoes of Made In Dagenham and Educating Rita, this heartfelt story of female empowerment features an irresistible performance from Leuenberger.
SCOTT AND SID (Cert 15; 100mins)
SCHOOLBOY pals Richard Mason and Tom Blyth were constantly told to stop pursuing their foolish dreams. The idea that they might one day make a film was ridiculous. Now they play a version of themselves in the amiable, polished Scott And Sid.
“Why can’t I be great?” demands Scott (Mason) when a schoolteacher suggests that he might want to consider employment in a supermarket. Befriending the shy, lonely Sid (Blyth) is the start of a beautiful friendship that inspires both of them to push themselves to the limit in a very likeable film.